13 NOVEMBER 1886, Page 23

The Vicar of Wakefield. (John Hogg.)—This classic appears with a

biographical introduction from the pen of Mr. H. J. Nicoll, a good paper, and giving in the way of narrative and criticism what a reader requires. It is a curious Latinism, by the way, to say that in "The Deserted Village" (which Mr. Nicoll seems to be quite right in refusing to identify with the poet's Irish home), "we find fully exposed the strange hallucination that England was being depopu- lated." " Exposed " is not now used for "expounded." The illustra- tions, thirty-two in number, are reproduced in fee-simile from Mulready's drawings.